Pollenosis is a IgE-mediated allergic disease which has the symptoms of snivel, sneezing, eye mucus, and/or tear resulting from mucous membrane inflammation of nostrils and/or eye. In Japan, Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) pollenosis is a typical one occurring in spring, and recently the number of its patients is remarkably increasing.
We found the pollenosis in adult-female Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata) inhabiting Miyajima Island under free-ranging conditions, who are derived from different female lineages one another. Their sera contained higher level of specific IgE antibody against Japanese cedar pollen than those of normal monkeys. The sera also induced a skin allergic reaction to the pollen upon Prausnitz-Kustner Test using normal healthy monkeys as a recipient. Thus, the current paper is the first report concerning naturally occurring pollenosis in wild non-human primates.
